Let the Year End Lists Begin, Extra Spicy

Here we are, almost at the end of another year, when Christmas songs and sleigh bells fill the air, kindness to strangers and love for our families fills our hearts and year-end best-of lists fill every medium you see. Well, we at the Rag would like to get a jumpstart on the trend and start putting out a few lists of our own. Today’s list: Best Spicy Meals in Sacramento. Get the water ready and your gringo mouth warmed up, here’s some of the best ways to obliterate your taste buds any time of year:

5. Chicken Larb (Thai Cottage, Howe Ave)- Oh larb, how you taunt us, sounding so funny but tasting so good. This traditional Thai salad of ground chicken, ground chilies, soy sauce, mint, cilantro, lettuce and lime juice is one of the best scorching salty dishes around. Almost every Thai restaurant has larb on the menu, but few are better than the Thai Cottage.

4. Earth & Vine Red Bell Pepper and Ancho Chili Jam (available at most fine grocers)- Earth & Vine is one of this area’s finest food producers. The Loomis based company creates some of the most interesting and flavorful jams, sauces and provisions you’ll ever have. The red bell pepper and ancho jam is fantastic over a brick of cream cheese, offering sweet and spicy for not too pricey at $7 a jar.

3. Hot Links with Hot Sauce (Everett & Jones, Franklin Blvd)- I once had a friend who was refused the hot barbecue sauce at E&J because the woman working the cash register thought him too frail to handle it. Point taken. They do not screw around at Everett & Jones. When they say hot they mean HOT. Unless the surface of your tongue more closely resembles a radial tire than a human organ, best to stick with the medium sauce and get the hot sauce on the side. No matter what the temperature though, Everett & Jones is damn good eating.

2. Jalapeno Almonds (Downtown and Country Club farmer’s markets)- You know that nut guy at the farmer’s markets, right? Well, he sure knows you, and he knows what you crave. If it’s sweet, he’s got sweet. If it’s salty, he’s got salty. And if it’s spicy, he’s got jalapeno almonds, a protein filled snack that’s both addictive and destructive. As it rips the stomach lining out of you in sheets, this tasty treat delivers with roasted almond flavor that can’t be beat, and the lingering heat stays on your lips for days, just like you’d made out with a hot skillet. If the jalapeno is too much for you, try the hot barbecue almonds, they’re just as good without the bowel degeneration.

1. Chili Verde (Tres Hermanas, K St & Three Sisters, Folsom Blvd)- Tres Hermanas has a reputation for serving mind blowingly hot dishes. For the love of all that is holy, even their table salsa will burn through kevlar given the right conditions. The chili verde is not the hottest thing on their menu (that distinction goes to the shrimp diablo), but it comes pretty close. Besides the heat though lies a depth of flavor that cannot be easily matched. It is not a dish for the faint of heart or sinuses, but it is, in this humble diner’s opinion, the best hot dish you can get in town. If you know of any better, let me know.